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PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A missile strike early Thursday killed at least
12 people, most of them Arabs, in a Pakistani tribal area known as a
safe haven for Al-Qaeda militants, officials and residents said.
US drones have launched several previous
strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region targeting
militants from Osama bin Laden’s network, although there was no
immediate confirmation from Pakistani forces.
Security officials said they had received a
report that a “guided missile” fired from neighboring
Afghanistan had hit a house belonging to a local tribesman at about
2:00 a.m. Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday).
“The death toll is now 12 to 13 people, three
of the dead appear to be from Punjab (central Pakistani province
where several militant groups are based) while the rest are
Arabs,” a security official told AFP.
At least five people were also injured in the
attack, officials added.
South Waziristan is the base of Baitullah Mehsud,
an Islamist warlord accused by Pakistani and US officials of links
to Al-Qaeda and of masterminding the assassination of former premier
Benazir Bhutto.
The security officials said they had no
information on who could have been targeted in the attack. The area
is remote, and Pakistani troops have limited control in the lawless
ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.
-- AFP
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